Although I never played the first Just Cause game, I watched a friend of mine from high school play Just Cause 3 a few years ago and thought it looked fantastic. I picked up Just Cause 2 on a whim a while back because it was cheap, and while I have Just Cause 3, I figured it would be better to play this one first so I don't go from 3 to 2 and end up disappointed (god help me, I guess, if I ever end up playing the first one). While there's naturally not as much wanton destruction in this game as I saw my buddy create in the third installment - they are, after all, different console generations - there's still a GLORIOUS amount of carnage and havoc to wreak in Just Cause 2.

The game's story follows the same protagonist from the first Just Cause, Rico Rodriguez, as he travels to the fictional southeast Asian island nation of Panau to overthrow an anti-American dictator. He does this by destroying various government installations, thus creating "chaos," and riling up and empowering the three rebel factions on the island. These factions are the ultranationalist Ular Boys, the communist Reapers, and the mafia Roaches. You pick one of these factions to side with in the final battle, but you'll be working with all three factions during the rest of the game.

Visually, the game looks good for the PlayStation 3. It doesn't push the hardware as hard as The Last of Us or Uncharted 3, but it's still a lovely game graphically. The music is good and fits the feel, but the start of the audio design is the sound effects. Dear god, the explosions sound SO satisfying. Just find a tank or minigun and destroy everything in sight. I could put William Sherman to shame with the destruction I left in my wake. Unfortunately, the voice acting doesn't always match the explosions; the acting is really hit or miss here. Some of the characters are totally fine, but some of the characters - especially the random NPCs - are just bad. Like, not 90s cringe bad, but "this is obviously a white guy trying too hard to sound Asian and it just comes off as kinda racist" bad. Also, while I definitely sided with the communist faction (workers of the world, unite!), the voice actress for the leader made me want to stab myself in the ears with an ice pick with every line. It was terrible.

Just Cause 2 is an absolute must-play for PS3/360 gamer fans of open world murder simulators because it's not just a murder simulator - it's a full blown American-backed terrorism simulator. Yeah, Grand Theft Auto may have hookers and murder and its share of explosions, but Just Cause 2 has quality explosions, not just quantity (although it definitely has the quantity, too). The voice acting is kind of meh, but the story is pretty good, the gameplay is obscenely addicting. You'll be exploring the map, see a previously undiscovered military base, and immediately say "WELL, I GUESS I BETTER GO KILL EVERYONE WITHIN 5 KILOMETERS." Seriously, this game is dirt cheap, and it's a bloody good time (literally).

I have a question - how do you decide what to play next? I mean thank goodness you're finally out of your Assassin's Creed binge, but when you play a seemingly random title I'm just curious - is it something that you are just in the mood for? Do you pick a title out of a virtual hat? Considering you buy roughly 300 games a month, I'd think you'd get struck with choice paralysis when actually deciding what to play.

Anvil of Dawn is a mid-90s WRPG that falls into the tile-based dungeon crawler category. In fact, it was one of the last of the tile-based dungeon crawlers during that style's heyday, as free movement and action RPG styles would soon come in vogue thanks to the likes of the Elder Scrolls series, Diablo, Ultima Underworld, and more. That said, as a swan song for a style that would only see a return in the current retro-inspired renaissance we're seeing now, Anvil of Dawn was an awesome way to go out. There's full voice acting, gorgeous real-time combat, pre-rendered cutscenes in a few places, a dark if simplistic storyline, and even a pre-rendered 3D landscape that makes a nice contrast to the various dungeons, even if it's all done on rails.

Anvil of Dawn also succeeds in giving the player some great tools; the in-game map is incredibly useful and shows almost everything you could want to know (with the ability to add notes and a mini-map available when navigating the dungeon), the inventory system is easy to navigate and doesn't hinder the player, and while the magic system's introduction is a little complicated, it quickly becomes simple to use, with all spells readily accessible. Movement is seamless, with the ability to dart in and out of combat a breeze. Your character has a health bar, as well as a portrait to show visual queues for your current status, and you can find the total amount of health and spell points by clicking the bar if you want more precise information. To add to it, leveling is simplistic: just participate in combat or cast spells, and eventually you'll get better in a style or magic element of your choice. It doesn't even half to be in what you use, so you can walk around with a spear, level, and increase your ability to use axes instead if you so desire.

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of complexity to the game. At the start, you pick which of the five adventurers you want to play, but since you can choose to set your stats however you want, this doesn't have a huge affect on gameplay. There are a couple of moments in the game where the choice changes a puzzle based on your gender, and you will find a couple of characters in the world being tortured or brutally murdered depending on who you pick, but otherwise it doesn't influence anything beyond your portrait and voice actor. The story is also incredibly simple: Evil has gotten powerful and is taking over the World, so you have to stop it for Good. This means you have to create a box to hold the Evil's power source and then destroy it. In fact, the big Evil is only known as the Warlord; he doesn't even get a name.

This simplicity also extends to the game itself. There are four weapon classes, but really, only one is useful. Use swords and put points in Slashing until you master it, because all of the best weapons are swords. Magic went up so slowly that I only raised my healing spell, and even if it hadn't, I probably still wouldn't have used it because spell points regenerated so slowly that I didn't feel it was worth trying out. I only used two spells for the game, one of which is required for puzzles. This may come down to taste and stats though, as I always favor tanks for melee and build characters accordingly.

While the game is simple, it doesn't always explain things well. You can breeze through a lot of dungeons and completely miss the items you need. I was thorough, but I'm sure there are still some chests I missed, and I couldn't guess if there are other pieces of gear I missed. Since I had the strength, I just kept nearly everything I thought I would need later, which proved to be enough. There is a journal, but I didn't find it quite as intuitive to use as I needed. Also, the main quest to build a box is given as a series of riddles; that wasn't helpful.

I feel like I'm complaining a lot, but I don't want to make anyone think I didn't enjoy myself. I did, immensely. At this point I've spent a fair amount of time with this genre, so there are a lot of things that I find quite important, and having a vague storyline is pretty par for the course. The tactics that I've developed over time in games like Eye of the Beholder and Dungeon Hack work well here, so I often breezed through combat, but that came from experience. Anvil of Dawn was fun, pretty, and satisfying. I liked it a lot, and I recommend it to other fans of this style of WRPG.

I have a question - how do you decide what to play next? I mean thank goodness you're finally out of your Assassin's Creed binge, but when you play a seemingly random title I'm just curious - is it something that you are just in the mood for? Do you pick a title out of a virtual hat? Considering you buy roughly 300 games a month, I'd think you'd get struck with choice paralysis when actually deciding what to play.

Sincerely,

Sleepless In New England

Hey now, I've cut back significantly with my game buying this year! But yeah, it's pretty much whatever I'm in the mood for at any given time. It may be three titty anime games in a row, or it may be three games from three totally different genres. It just depends on what I'm feeling at that particular moment.

Game of the year 2018 right here, guys. I had been curious about the "free game" included with Shaq Fu that the cover advertised, but I didn't think much of it after I finished the game. Let me tell you a story about how greatly I underestimated that little inconspicuous part of the cover. I usually lie in bed scrolling through Twitter or Facebook at night, and one night, I evidently fell asleep while scrolling through Twitter. I woke up around 3 or 4 in the morning, and thought "Man, what a crazy dream I had. I dreamt that they added Barack Obama DLC to Shaq Fu. Weird." So I got up to make a sandwich like I always do when I wake up in the middle of the night, and that "dream" keeps nagging at me, so I decide to grab my Switch and just check. Just in case. Lo and behold, it wasn't a drunken fever dream but a glorious reality! I'd apparently read a tweet about Barack Fu right as I fell asleep, so upon waking, I thought it had been a dream. I've never been so happy to be wrong.

If you've played the base Shaq Fu game, then you know how Barack Fu plays. It's not long - only about an hour or so - but you play as Barack Obama going to the "Paris Fashion Weak" to find American rapper and eternal pain in the ass of thinking people everywhere "Con-Ye" and force him to shut the hell up. Along the way, you're forced to fight a veritable army of stereotypical Frenchmen wielding baguettes, absurdly dressed models, and even a sub-boss parody of Marine La Pen, Emmanuel Macron's fascist opponent in the 2017 French presidential election. Throughout all of this, Obama drops the most amazing puns and one-liners I think I've ever heard in a video game.

In terms of gameplay, while it may play just like Shaq Fu, it's a bit tougher with harder enemies, longer sections between checkpoints, and less forgiving health drops. That's not to say that it's brutally difficult - I only died once in my playthrough, and I suck at games - but it's a good challenge that I found IMMENSELY satisfying. While it doesn't have as many power-ups as Shaq Fu (being, like, 20% of the length), it does have one totally amazing power-up - "Dirty Barry Mode." With this power-up, Obama dons a pair of aviators, pulls out two Uzis, and mows down hordes of enemies. It's...simply beautiful.

Visually, it's obviously identical to Shaq Fu, and while it doesn't have Obama versions of the hella catchy songs the base game has about Shaq, the voice acting is fantastic. It's obviously not the actual Barack Obama voicing the character, but the guy they got to do it sounds JUST like him. All of the speech quirks and mannerisms are there, too, from the frequent pauses to the "Uhhs." It's perfect. I don't know who voiced Obama's character, but whoever it is did a fantastic job.

The game's strongest aspect, as was the case with the base Shaq Fu game, is the writing. It's comedic genius. It's not as excessively meta as Shaq Fu was which I personally find to be a good thing, but the puns and humor are no less brilliant. The story is ridiculous and outlandish in all the right ways, and the dialogue is fantastic. It pokes fun at President Obama's less popular features as well as his endearing ones, and while it's pretty obvious that the developers were Obama supporters, the game is silly and absurd enough that even those who vehemently opposed the 44th president should be able to get full enjoyment from the writing.

Barack Fu: The Adventures of Dirty Barry is pure brilliance as far as humor goes. It looks and plays just like Shaq Fu, but that's not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. It's currently only available to those who purchased a retail version of the game which, while kind of screwing over digital folks, is a big plus in my book because screw digital downloads. Physical games for life, yo. It's only an hour or so long, but it's an hour that could give any stand up or sketch comedy routine a run for its money. I cannot recommend this highly enough, and this is ABSOLUTELY a reason to go buy a physical copy of Shaq Fu right now. I struggled really hard with whether to give this a four or a five, and I was tempted to break my no-half-points rule. In the end, the only thing keeping this game from getting full marks from me is that it's just so short at only two levels. This is too brilliant to be this brief, and it really does deserve its down full length game. Hopefully that will come sometime in the future.

Rhythm Tengoku is the first game in Nintendo’s quirky rhythm game franchise, better known as Rhythm Heaven in the US and Rhythm Paradise in Europe. As you might guess from the title, this entry in the series never left it’s home country of Japan. Whilst the west was introduced to the series on DS, this original entry was a GBA game. However, it arrived quite late in the GBA lifespan, after the DS was available, so localising it was probably not worth the effort.

Rhythm Tengoku is a rhythm game made by the WarioWare devs, and it shows. The game features a whole bunch of zany and quirky rhythm mini-games, and you’ll be tasked with helping a bunny bounce along whales to the moon, shooting ghosts with a bow and arrow, plucking stray whiskers from turnips with tweezers and more. Whilst the scenarios are crazy, the games are really simple to pick up and play – most games simply require you to tap the A button with the right timing, although a couple also use the b button and d-pad.

Rhythm Tengoku is also a game that can often be played with your eyes shut, as most of the button cues are done via the games audio, with the visuals often deliberately trying to distract you. The combination of this factor and the easy controls mean that it’s generally a pretty easy game to play without knowing Japanese, which is nice. The toughest mini game is early on where marching instructions are shouted out in Japanese, but you can pick it up pretty easily overall. I do suspect we’re missing out on some funny dialogue in the tutorial sections, but luckily enough there’s a fan translation out there so you can play that if you want.

Of the game in the series, the mini game selection here is probably the weakest batch – it’s still solid, but they tend to be both shorter and less intricate that later games, likely due to the cartridge limitations. Speaking of which, the elephant in the room here is the GBA’s audio quality – luckily, this game’s music holds up really well despite the GBAs limitations, and it was never something I thought was to the games detriment.

Overall, Rhythm Tengoku is a fun experience. If you’ve played all the other ones, you should definitely pick up the game and see how the series started, but if you’re new to the franchise, the DS, Wii or 3DS entries are likely better places to start.

Recommended listening: Obviously being a rhythm game, this game is full of great music, but here's one I really like. This is from a rhythm game where you're a very tall girl who joins a tap dancing troupe made entirely of monkeys. Your biggest fan is a giraffe. Rhythm Tengoku is kinda weird.

Click the image below to listen!

Portal 2

Portal 2 is a game I’ve played before, years and years ago. I beat it even. But the thing is, I only played the (admittedly excellent) multiplayer mode, and had never sat down and played through the story mode. So, seeing as I was challenged to beat the game by NoiseRedux over in my challenge thread, I decided it was time to sit down and play through it at last.

Portal 2 in many ways is more of the same since the first game. There’s more of a focus on story and building the lore than previously and the game is also a bit longer now it’s being put out as a full retail release. You wake up at the start of the game in the same test facility as before, only you get more of a glimpse at the back end of the facility. You are awoken by a module droid-thing called Wheatley, who warns you that you need to try and leave as things are going wrong at the facility. Wheatley is very stupid, so your journey with him is always quite fun. It’s not long though before GLaDoS is reawakened and your mission changes to ‘take out GLaDoS’. There’s lots of twists and turns throughout the plot, but the game is still funny throughout. I did feel like the character of Cave Johnson got old fast though.

Mechanically, you can still create two portals which link together, but the focus on this time, rather than increasing complexity using existing mechanics, is the introduction of new level gimmicks. Early on these take the forms of obstacles such as hard light walls and bridges that can be repositioned with portals, or lasers that need to be pointed at switched. In the latter half of the game, the focus is on gels which can be used to paint surfaces – blue gel makes you bounce into the air, orange gel lets you run faster, and white gel can be used to turn a wall into a surface that a portal can be applied to.

These new mechanics are fun, but I feel the game has much more minimal ways to utilise the portals – many of the puzzle areas only have a few surfaces that portals can be applied to, and it feels less flexible than the first game. The environments can be really big too, and in particular the areas between puzzle rooms often end up feeling like pixel hunts to search for the one white wall 3 miles away that you can shoot a portal onto.

Overall, despite my feelings that Portal 2 is a less well rounded game than the first, it’s still a great game and massively enjoyable. It really is a must play title, just, you know, play the first one first.

Recommended listening:Portal 2 has a soundtrack that's more atmospheric than catchy, which isn't to say that it's not good, just that I don't particularly remember any of it that well after finishing the game. There is one very obviously catchy song in the game though, which I've linked below - but be warned, it does contain some spoilers!

Back in 2011 a new Polish studio named Flying Wild Hog came out with a game called Hard Reset. It was billed as a single A FPS; sitting somewhere between indie (which at the time was exclusively low rez 2D) and full AAA development. It was also billed as a return to older mechanics compared to the contemporary shooters that followed the CoD4 model. It was a fun little game, which took a lot of gameplay from the Painkiller style of going from section to section, with each section suddenly spawning a ton of enemies for you to wipe out before the way opens to the next section. You have two weapons which each switch between up to five fire modes. The switch between the two weapons is much faster than toggling through fire modes, so the gameplay came down to you picking a favorite mode from each gun and switching as the situation warranted. However, the game had a fair number of rough edges. The story was extremely minimal, even though there were hints at more. If they had widened the between mission comic cutscenes they could have given the context needed for it to be a full story. Also, the balance was pretty off. Some sections just were too nasty, and you'd have to reload checkpoint after checkpoint until you tackled things in just the right order to make it through.

Redux fixes the latter issue. Enemy placement has been rebalanced for a smoother difficulty curve, and you now have a quick dash that can get you out of the way of melee enemies (which are numerous). They also added quick save, though the rebalance made it completely unnecessary in my mind; the couple times I died it was because I didn't treat the enemies as if they were able to kill me and consequently died (stupid stuff like "let's try and just run past everyone"). Unfortunately, all the story issues remain. There's a potentially interesting world here, but you see almost none of it. Even the free DLC expansion (which was 2/3 the length of the base game) for the original and updated for Redux doesn't help any. Still, it's fun if you want to get your FPS on.

Games Beaten: 2015201620172018Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.